Celtic signings will be manager dependent. All else is noise and nonsense.

I don’t know whose idea it was to leak the idea that Celtic are interested in Kasper Høgh, the big striker playing for Bodø/Glimt right now. But Høgh will not be one of Celtic’s signings.

This club is not going to pay the money they want for him. We could have made a move when he first came onto our radar. He would have cost a few quid, but he would not have cost the astronomical fee he will cost us now.

There is no chance whatsoever that Celtic are going to pay that fee.

Then there is Jakob Breum. So suddenly the guy who wasn’t worth paying for when Rodgers was the manager is worth paying for now?

The fact that both of these guys have been on the transfer targets list for a while is telling and damning at the same time. Is this club going to get serious at some point? Is this club going to spend money this summer?

I have no idea. But I do not like the fact that we are messing around leaking names of alleged targets to friendly journalists to create the impression of forward motion.

Appoint a manager first, and then transfer stories become semi-believable.

We should not even be discussing transfer targets in public. We should not be talking to the media about players we might want to sign until there is a manager in the building.

It looks scattershot. It looks ridiculous.

It looks like a club that keeps making the same mistake over and over again.

At times, Celtic feels like a revolving door of chaos. Nothing seems to make sense. We do things that are stupid. We do things that leave you scratching your head in bewilderment, wondering what the hell people at Celtic are thinking.

Twice in the last three summers, Rodgers’ first season and Rodgers’ last, we have tried to assemble a squad without properly taking the needs of the manager into account. It has cost money. It has wasted time. It has pissed people off inside and outside the club.

We do not seem to learn that you just don’t do that.

We do not seem to learn that it is self-defeating.

Yes, we should be hunting for players right now. I agree that it is time to start the rebuild. But the rebuild does not start until the architect is in the building.

When you look at what Ange Postecoglou did, it was not magic.

It was hugely successful because there was a plan.

He came into a team that needed restructuring and had freedom in that process. He knew the style of football he wanted to play. He knew what his budget was. He raised additional funds by selling players who were not going to stay.

He had his own vision, understood what he was trying to do, and broadly knew the type of player he wanted in every gap in the team. As a consequence, we went further, faster and better than we have done either before or since.

If your style of play involves attacking full-backs, it does no good if the board signs you two central defenders. If your style of play involves inside forwards, it does no good if they sign old-fashioned wingers who cannot cut inside the box and score goals.

The manager comes first.

He provides the blueprint. The scouting department’s job after that is to give him a list of players who fit the system. It is not rocket science.

Then again, a lot of simple and straightforward things that we take for granted in this world are not rocket science. I would not know how to build a car engine. To me, watching someone build a car engine looks like voodoo. Just walking by a complicated machine and looking at all the parts, I can’t imagine how anyone could design it, build it or maintain it.

But to someone who knows that job, it is as simple as turning on the taps.

So it is here. If we bring in a manager who knows the style of play he wants to implement, he should help define what signings are required, not some bean counter in a back office who has played Football Manager a couple of times and thinks that makes him an expert.

If the manager has already been decided, if it is Martin O’Neill, then announce it. End the subterfuge. Then we can understand where we are and where we are trying to get to.

Even if you do not believe in the decision, and even if you do not believe he is the right person, you at least know a system is being put in place. At that point, you can only hope the manager’s needs are being met.

It is frustrating watching Celtic go about their business as if the club has learned nothing from past mistakes.

Yesterday, I wrote about Shaun Maloney.

I’m going to write about him again later, because there are people out there who could do that job, and I am going to give you the names of three of them. It is simple to come up with three people who could do the job, because you look at who is doing it, who has done it and what their availability is. All are qualified to do it in a way Maloney is not.

For some reason, our club prefers to do things in a slapdash fashion that makes no sense.

Honestly, I stand by everything I said yesterday.

If we are not giving this club a steer, if we are not getting in their face, if we are not giving them a hard time, then this club is going to repeat all the mistakes it has made before. It is going to keep blundering down the same blind alley.

I don’t know about you, but that idea terrifies me. We have had one close escape. You have to wonder how many more it will take before the club learns. The next time, we are not going to get away with it.

The next time, the season may end in disaster.

That season might be the one right in front of us.

So the time is now.

If this club won’t get serious, we have to get it serious.

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